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Snapshots - #7

Black Sails (♦♦♦♦): in Season 2
there were many revelations, and in the last episode we experienced the mother
of all pirate's attacks on the North Carolina colony as payback for its
prominent citizens wanting to hang Captain Flint after a summary public trial.

In Season
3, we encounter Captain Flint again at sea, but this man is more at war
with the world than he is ever been. John Silver, now his quartermaster, thinks
that bad things materialize due to Flint's demons. But if that's the case, this
time the crew of The Walrus will look at death in the face several times before
they return to Nassau. Even then, nothing is certain, for a British governor,
Woodes Rogers, has taken hold of Providence Island without a battle by giving pardons
to the pirates who inhabit it. Leave it to Charles Vane and Captain Flint to
raise their voices—and swords—in dissent.

After the explosive Season 2, Season 3 feels more subdued, like a
transitional state between the bad and the worse to come. Don't get me wrong,
plenty of exciting things happen this season, but all seems in preparation to
the war between the pirates of Nassau, the British Empire, and perhaps the
Spanish too.

Music Concerts...

Jackie Evancho: Awakening - Live in Concert (♦♦♦♦♦): this concert was filmed for a TV special in 2015, runs for about
73 minutes, and it was shot in Pennsylvania's Longwood Gardens. Most of the
concert takes place in the Longwood Gardens Open Air Theater, while some songs
are sung at other venues around the property.

Jackie Evancho's concert features songs from
the album Awakening. It draws
inspiration from diverse sources, ranging from classical music (Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro, Dormi Jesú, the Ave
Maria, and Rachmaninoff's Vocalisse),
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera (Think
of Me), from rock, in a salute to U2 (With
or Without You), and from popular culture (A Great Big World & Christina
Aguilera's Say Something,
Evanescence's My Immortal, and The Rains of Castamere, in a nod to
Games of Thrones).

The heavenly voice of Jackie Evancho reminds
me a great deal of a younger Charlotte Church, but with lesser voice acrobatics
and more understandable phrasing. A commendable aspect of young Evancho, is her
skill to choose a repertoire that appeals to operatic connoisseurs and more
mainstream pop, while staying away of other singers' material of the same
genre.

Il Volo: Live from Pompeii (♦♦♦♦♦): this operatic male trio was formed in 2009. Their 2015 world
tour kick-started at Pompeii's Amphitheater, which hadn't been used for a
concert since Pink Floyd used it in 1972. Filmed for PBS, this concert runs for
78 minutes and it features hits like Grande
Amore, Io che non vivo, Delilah and
Volare (in playful performances), Caruso,
Unchained Melody, and Anema e Cuore,
among others.

I always enjoy Il Volo's live performances
because they have great chemistry together. Though, at times, their combined
voices are almost drowned by the music, and their individual performances are
usually better than as a trio—Gianluca is the more mature voice of the three, a
baritone; needless is to remind that he was the winner of the Sanremo
competition where all three met and from which they came to be—, they make
classics sound fresh and hip.

The movies...

The Martian (♦♦♦♦): I bought this
movie last year as soon as it came out. I was unimpressed the first time I
watched it. I thought Matt Damon was too stiff for the role, the music didn't
go with the topic, and the only thing the filmmakers got right was the
cinematography. Oh boy! It happened a few times last year that I had to watch a
movie twice to really like it, and that has been the case with The Martian.

This time around I thought Matt Damon was
spot on as Mark Watney, because Mark was being funny about life or death
situations, and Matt Damon was hysterical but in a wry way, which was the right
way to perceive his snarky comments. The disco music, which I loved, was
appropriate since that's the only music Watney had available, and since there's
no sound in space it would have been a very boring movie without that danceable
soundtrack. They got the science right, but it was based on the book, so
hopefully there was little room for error there. And the cinematography was
outstanding.

Gods of Egypt (♦♦♦½):
this production can boast of being visually lavish and of its solid
performances. Nickolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister of Game of Thrones fame) plays his role of outcast god Horus to a T,
and how could he not when he is more or less reprising his Lannister role?
Other two worthy performances are that of Gerard Butler as god Set, the usurper
to the throne—in a role cut from 300—,
and Geoffrey Rush as the all-powerful Ra. The screenplay—I assume the material
was taken from Egyptian mythology, though I don't know if licenses were taken
with the story—it’s OK, but not much more.

Comments

I read the book and loved it. That's probably the reason why I wasn't fond of this movie the first time I saw it. I remembered Mark Watney being so funny and the choice of Matt Damon didn't sit well with me, bus as you said, I came around.It's kind of science-y, but I hope you enjoy it.

I'm glad you gave "The Martian" a second chance. I loved the movie as I did the book. In fact, I thought the translation to the screen was very faithful to the book. I've read a lot of good things about "Black Sails" but haven't watched it. Maybe I should.

There were several key plot elements in the book that weren't in the movie, but I thought the result was very good, and as funny as the original was.Black Sails is not Game of Thrones, and it is kind of anachronistic, but it is very entertaining. And who doesn't like a good pirate adventure?!

I don't know why I didn't like it as much before, but I enjoyed last night's viewing a great deal.Season 2 of Black Sails was the best one yet. Plenty of things happen in Season 3, but it is more introspective than its predecessors.

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